HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE GRANT MORRISON’S BATMAN PART 14: Batman Versus Robin

Damian Wayne is the first one to figure out that Oberon Sexton, The Gravedigger, is actually the Joker. But as readers, we’d already figured it out. Dominoes or cards, they’re both gambling games. And the red shades/black costume recalls the red-and-black motif from Batman RIP. No, the mystery of Sexton isn’t the really interesting thing about this part of the story…What’s so great here is the depths to which Morrison explores identity and continuity.

Morrison was always able to make the DCU’s extended, convoluted history make sense in a way noone else ever could. Here, Deathstroke works out his past conflicts with Dick Grayson through a remote control link with Damian. Later in the same story, Talia reveals that she has cloned Damian–and Damian’s clone will be exactly ten years younger than Damian when he is born–so now we wonder whether the future Batman from issue #666 was Damian…Or Damian’s clone?